Finding and Saving Locations in TPE (The Photographer’s Ephemeris) Web

A saved location in The Photographer’s Ephemeris Web gives you a quick way to return to a place for future planning. Locations record a map position and can include a title, notes and reference links to help you identify and organise places you want to revisit. This article explains how to find, save and access locations in TPE Web.

When saving a location, TPE Web records the red pin position along with the map zoom level. The elevation and time zone of the location are also stored as reference data.

Searching for locations

We covered the basics of searching for a new location in TPE Web Orientation and Basics – please review it if you haven’t already read it. There are a few more things to add.

Types of search terms

You can search for addresses, place names, postal codes, ZIP codes or coordinates. Type your search term in the field:

If you’re a PRO or MAX subscriber, you will see autocomplete suggestions as you type. If you don’t have a PRO or MAX subscription, press Enter or click the Search button to see results.

Note: Autocomplete suggestions may differ from the results you see when you click Search. This is because autocomplete tries to make its best guesses based on what you’re typing. The Search button finds specific matches only.

Here are some examples of things you can search for:

• Place names: e.g., Stonehenge, Schwabacher’s Landing
• Addresses: e.g., St Paul’s Churchyard, London, EC4M 8AD
• Postal codes: e.g., WC2E 9DD
• ZIP codes: e.g., 10023. This returns places in Poland and Italy, in addition to New York – the USPS doesn’t have a monopoly on numeric postal code systems.
• Coordinates (formatted in decimal degrees): e.g., 45.8326° N, 6.8652° E – the summit of Mont Blanc
• Three-word addresses: e.g., branded.mull.song. what3words.com has divided the planet into 3 × 3 m squares (~10 × 10 ft) and given each a unique name – this can be a great way to communicate about otherwise unnamed spots that landscape photographers may wish to reference. (Note: what3words addresses require a Web Supporter, PRO, or MAX Subscription)

If you enter coordinates, the app will also look up nearby places. In this example, I’ve entered the latitude/longitude of Grindelwald, Switzerland. As you can see, the ‘reverse geocoding’ process finds nearby places; the first of which, naturally, is Grindelwald:

Once you’ve found the search result you want, you have two options: (i) red pin and (ii) Save icon:

1. Three-word address found from search term
2. Clicking the red pin icon will set the primary pin to this location
3. Clicking the Save icon will add the location to your Library

After clicking the red pin icon, the primary (red) map pin is set to the correct coordinate:

1. Primary pin is positioned at Columbus Circle, New York

For some results, it may be necessary to use the map buttons to zoom in or out. If you have zoomed or panned so that your red pin is no longer in view, use the centre red pin button to move it to the centre of the map; alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut C.

Sometimes after positioning the red pin, you might move the map until the red pin is out of view. To centre the map on the red pin, use the keyboard shortcut Shift-C.

Saving locations and the Library

If you wish to save a search result to your Library, click the Save icon in the search results as shown above. The app will navigate to the Locations page in the Library and you will be able to rename the location, edit the coordinates and optionally enter some notes:

When done, click Save if you’ve made changes; otherwise, just click Close.

If you want to go back and edit a saved location, you’ll need to be able to find it again in your Library. We can search our Locations by typing in the ‘Find in saved locations’ field:

1. Find in saved locations field
2. Find and Clear buttons

Remember, this is not the same as searching for a new (unsaved) location: to find new places, use the Search button on the Map page. To find saved locations, use these controls on the Locations page in the Library.

The search function will find matches within both the title and notes fields of your saved locations. So, for example, to find the three-word address we saved above, I can type ‘New Y’ (as the notes field included the words ‘New York’), and it will be found.

You can click Clear to display the unfiltered Locations.

If you click the location displayed above to select it, some additional controls appear:

1. Set the primary pin to this location
2. Edit the saved location record
3. Icon to indicate that the saved location has Notes content

If you have geodetics enabled, you see an additional control:

1. Set secondary pin to this location

You don’t need a formal naming convention, but it can help to be consistent when naming locations. Using the same abbreviations, place names or other identifying terms makes locations easier to recognise and find later. For example, choose whether you’ll use “ 14er ” or “ fourteener ” and use the same form consistently.

You don’t have to use a naming convention: you can just rely on the default name given to the location when it is created. However, after using TPE for a while, you may end up with many saved locations. Remember that the most important consideration when naming a saved location is that it is easy to find again: don’t get too cryptic!

Favourites

You can mark a saved location as a favourite by clicking the heart icon displayed to the right of each location in the Locations view:

1. ‘Bear Lake, RMNP’ is not a favourite
2. ‘Black Elk Peak, High Point SD’ is a favourite
3. Click Favourites to view all favourite locations

Your favourites will be synchronised to the server so they’ll show up in TPE for iOS, and favourites marked in TPE for iOS will also appear in the web app.

You can filter favourites by title by typing a full or partial name in the Find in saved locations input field.

Lists

You can create Lists of favourite locations to group items together as needed:

1. Lists are shown in the sidebar
2. Add new List by clicking the + button
3. Drag and drop to reorder locations in a List
4. Click to reorder Lists in the sidebar
5. Click to edit a List

When adding a new List, you can choose a title, description, icon and colour:

Additional controls

1. Add the current primary pin position as a saved location – see Saving the location for details.
2. Import locations from KML, KMZ, GPX, GeoJSON, PlanIT or .tpe
3. Export locations as a KMZ or an archive file (.tpe file)
4. Select items – select multiple locations at once, then add them to a List or delete them as a group
5. Synchronise locations

Importing and exporting locations

In TPE Web, you can easily import and export locations using the “ .kml ” file format for 2D and 3D map-based data. Google Earth uses the same file format. You can view exported TPE locations in Google Earth and vice versa.

Import a file to TPE Web

TPE Web currently supports importing the following file types: KML, KMZ, GPX, GeoJSON, PlanIT and .tpe.

KML is a standardised format for geographic information. TPE Web can import KML files that include Placemarks. Note: Not all KML files include Placemarks, so you may find some files that generate zero locations when imported.

As an example, we’ll use some KML downloaded from Wikipedia. Wikipedia has all sorts of lists of interesting places. Download the KML from the List of Himalayan Peaks and Passes:

1. Download the KML as shown by clicking the link. This will normally end up in your browser’s Downloads folder.

Next, click the Import button (labelled 2 in the Additional Controls screenshot above). Drag and drop the downloaded KML file to the pop-up form:

1. Drag and drop the KML file to the area indicated. Alternatively, click in the grey area to display a file selection dialogue. Only one file can be uploaded at a time.

You should see 43 new locations imported. The app tags these with the time at which they were imported, and sets the filter to show only the newly created locations. Click Clear to view the full locations list once again.

If you import when viewing a List, the newly imported locations are automatically added to that List.

Export a KMZ file from TPE Web

By default, TPE Web exports all locations visible on the Locations page. On clicking the export button without filtering your locations, TPE Web will automatically export all of your saved locations. To export just one location, or a small selection, use the filter field to export only the desired locations. Once filtered, TPE Web will only export the visible, filtered locations.

a) If you want to export a filtered list, filter the locations first. b) Click the “ Export ” button. c) The KMZ file is generated and can be found in your browser’s default download folder.

Note: We recommend you back up your saved locations regularly by exporting them from the app. Note: Please use discretion when sharing photo location information.

Synchronisation

Your saved locations and Lists are automatically synchronised to our server from time to time. When the Sync button (5 above) is shown in blue, that means there are pending changes on your local machine to synchronise to the server. Otherwise, locations are synced every few minutes while the Library is open, and also when you first navigate to it and when you leave it.

Sync works on the principle of ‘last change wins.’ If you save changes (let’s call them Edit A and Edit B) to the same location on two devices (let’s call them Machine 1 and Machine 2), then Edit B will overwrite Edit A unless you sync both devices in order after making the first change. The first sync writes Edit A from Machine 1 to the server. The second sync pulls Edit A down to Machine 2.

In general, just follow the habit of editing, then syncing, and things will work pretty much as you’d expect.

Next up: TPE Web Tutorial, Part 6: Six-Degree Shadow Circle